Laurie Wastell

Laurie Wastell is an associate editor at the Daily Sceptic.

Brits are being kept in the dark about asylum crime

As long as Britain’s official orthodoxy remains that diversity is its “strength,” will the authorities ever be straight with the public about the realities of migration-linked crime? This week, a Pakistani national, Sheraz Malik, was found guilty of two counts of raping an 18-year-old girl in Nottinghamshire. The woman had been drinking at a park in

asylum

The Blob doesn’t want the police to use data

From our UK edition

After spending a year trying to empty our overcrowded prisons, the Labour government has now decided its best bet is to catch criminals before they strike. Police AI technology will use ‘predictive analytics’ to ‘identify and target the 1,000 most dangerous predatory men who pose the highest risk to women and girls in England and

Is Reform really becoming the Tory party 2.0?

From our UK edition

Nadhim Zahawi, the one-time Tory chancellor and former vaccines minister, has joined Reform UK. But is that a good thing? For some, his defection is yet another coup for the populist upstarts at the expense of the sinking Conservatives. For others, the arrival of the smooth-talking Tory grandee raises the hackles, suggesting Reform is slowly

Why weren’t the grooming gangs treated as race-hate crimes?

From our UK edition

After months of turmoil, the chair and the terms of reference of the government’s national grooming gangs inquiry have at last been announced. The inquiry will be led by Baroness Anne Longfield, a Labour peer and former children’s commissioner. She will investigate the ‘systemic, institutional and individual’ failures to deal with these gangs and to

What the Blob doesn’t want you to know about ethnicity and crime

From our UK edition

Should the police disclose the ethnicity and background of suspects in high-profile crimes, and how soon should they reveal this information? In the year since the Southport unrest – in which migrant hotels were attacked after online claims the attacker had been an asylum seeker – the British state has had to ask itself this question. While

The Guardian’s Matthew Goodwin hit job doesn’t add up

From our UK edition

It was only a matter of time before the Guardian went for Professor Matthew Goodwin. The honorary president of Reform’s new student wing came under attack this week after he said a UK-born man of African heritage – who is alleged to have stabbed ten people on a train near Huntingdon earlier this month – was not truly

The deluded liberalism of Michael Heseltine

From our UK edition

Michael Heseltine is making a bid to become the fresh new face of Remoanerism. Earlier this month ‘Hezza’ wowed the wets at Tory conference with a speech to the effect that Reform are ‘equivalents to the fascists in the 30s’ for the crime of wanting to reduce immigration. This week, having acquired a taste for

Labour’s attack on Sarah Pochin reeks of desperation

From our UK edition

The wall-to-wall chorus of condemnation of Sarah Pochin’s remarks last week about woke advertising has been hysterical even by the left’s standards. ‘Sarah Pochin’s comments were a disgrace’, fulminated Labour’s X account, ‘and Nigel Farage’s silence is deafening.’ David Lammy said the remarks were ‘mean, nasty and racist’ and wants her sacked. Health Secretary Wes

The real reason Birmingham isn’t safe for Jews

From our UK edition

The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their Europa League game against Aston Villa next month has led to a major row about two-tier policing. Why exactly is the arrival of several thousand Israelis in Birmingham expected to precipitate a major, violent riot? And shouldn’t West Midlands Police, rather than advising the

Students shouldn’t be arrested for speech 

From our UK edition

‘Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground’, Oxford student Samuel Williams appeared to chant at a central London pro-Palestine demonstration last Saturday, footage of which has since gone viral on social media. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a 20-year-old man presumed to be Williams (although this remains unconfirmed by the

The Hamit Coskun appeal is a victory for free speech

From our UK edition

The conviction of Hamit Coskun of a public order offence for burning a Quran has today been overturned by Southwark Crown Court. It’s a vital victory for free speech in the UK, as well as for Mr Coskun, and the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, which defended him. It’s a mark of

Nigel Farage has a point about migrants eating swans

From our UK edition

When Nigel Farage appeared to ape Donald Trump by noting the problem of migrants mistreating British wildlife, his comments were swiftly condemned. Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari on Wednesday, the Reform leader suggested that ‘swans were being eaten in Royal Parks in this country’ and that ‘carp were being taken out of ponds’. Who was

Labour is gunning for GB News

From our UK edition

GB News has had a good summer. Buoyed by a summer of small boat crossings and immigration protests and arrests for free speech, the People’s Channel has been nosing ahead of rivals BBC, ITV and Sky News. In August, its average views between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. rose to 85,000, with the BBC News

Labour can’t be trusted to protect free speech

From our UK edition

The outrageous arrest of Graham Linehan this week seems almost designed to cause maximum embarrassment to the British government. Just a day after the news broke, Nigel Farage was already raising the case at a free-speech Congressional committee in Washington, DC, where the Reform leader happily played prime-minister-in-waiting as he opined gravely about our values

What the Bell Hotel case reveals about two-tier Labour

From our UK edition

It’s a mark of the absurd legalism of Britain’s political system that after a month of fierce protests and years of government intransigence over asylum hotels, the future of the asylum system now rests on the whims of several judges in a dispute about planning permission. The Home Office and the owners of the Bell

Labour’s shameful response to the Manchester Airport attack

From our UK edition

On Wednesday at Liverpool Crown Court, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, one of the two brothers accused of the Manchester Airport attack last July, was found guilty of assaulting two female police officers, as well as a member of the public. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that Amaaz and his brother,

The state will do anything but fix the migrant crisis

From our UK edition

Migrant hotel protests are erupting across the country, as ‘tinderbox’ Britain catches fire. What began with a series of protests in Epping, Essex, over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by a recently arrived Ethiopian migrant, has now spread, as Brits air long-standing grievances about asylum seekers they have been forced to host

Two-tier policing has arrived in Epping

From our UK edition

When it comes to protests against immigration and asylum hotels, accusations of two-tier policing are never far away. This week the spotlight has fallen on Essex Police, and its handling of a demonstration last week by Epping residents against an asylum hotel in the town, following an alleged sexual assault by a recently arrived Ethiopian